PAUL AND VIRGINIA (Fr. Paul etVirginie, pṓ'lắ-vḗr'zhḗ'nḗ'). A well-known romance by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1788), the scene of which is laid in Mauritius, where the author had spent three years. It exhibits great powers of description and emotional force, with exaggerated sentiment and a not altogether healthy atmosphere. It is the story of two playmates whose affection develops into love, and ends with the drowning of Virginia and the death of her lover from grief.